Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova has had a meeting with Siti Rozaimeriyanty binti Abdul Rahman, Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations who is in our country to take part in the VI World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.

The significance of the Forum that our country is hosting and the relevance of the subjects discussed were underlined during the meeting. Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova remarked that the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue had been established on the basis of the ‘Baku Process’ upon the instance of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and has to date become an important international platform supporting intercultural dialogue and open discussions about our world’s concerns that require combined effort and collaboration.

The Inter-Parliamentary Conference The Role and Best Practices of the Legislature in the Protection of Cultural Heritage held on the margins of the Forum was emphasised as an important opportunity for parliamentarians to discuss the subject-matter and as a momentum in the context of a continued deepening of the dialogues between the legislative assemblies.

In addition, they discussed issues related to the co-operation between the Milli Majlis and the AIPA. The special importance that the Parliament of Azerbaijan attaches to strengthening the bilateral and multilateral ties with the parliaments of Asian countries in the context of parliamentary diplomacy was underscored as well. It is in view of this that the Milli Majlis pays special attention to the co-operation with the AIPA, which, in turns, contributes to the advancement of the diversely-sectored interaction. The Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan was admitted to the Organisation as an observer member at the plenary session of the 43^rd General Assembly of AIPA held in the Kingdom of Cambodia in 2022, it was mentioned. This serves to further deepen Azerbaijan's co-operation with this structure.

The Memorandum of Co-operation inked between the AIPA and the Parliamentary Network of the Non-Aligned Movement under the Azerbaijani presidency in Manama in March 2023 was brought up as well. That document, it was said, was a further token of the mutually advantageous relations that promote the development of parliamentary diplomacy, dialogue and co-operation.

Also, the meeting saw an exchange of opinions about other topics of common interest.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis